This study evaluated Vincent Tinto's longitudinal model for student attrition by examining recent college dropouts' perceptions of their experiences and their decision to leave college. Tinto's model argues that individual departure arises from a longitudinal process of interaction between a student's attributes, skills, dispositions, and other members of the academic and social systems at the college. Descriptive accounts were obtained by interviewing 18 students (12 female and 6 male) who had recently withdrawn from several Utah universities. The interviews supported Tinto's model as they revealed that students view their departure from college in terms of isolation and incongruence. Students saw faculty-student interaction as essential for a positive educational experience and mentoring relationships appeared to have the greatest impact on academic and social integration and student retention. In addition, the results found that gender expectations and family background were strongly related to students' decisions to leave. This challenges Tinto's claim that personal characteristics influencing students "intention and commitment" are less significant in dropout decisions. Appendixes include a figure of Tinto's model and an interview format. (Contains 39 references.) (JB)